The Stothert Administration
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Re: The Stothert Administration
Suttle could be pretty ignorant at times. With all of the budget issues we had going on (he inherited them), the bike czar was really poor timing on his part. Not debating if it was needed but was not the right time.
Was it Fahey or Daub (I think Fahey) that negotiated deal with the fire union where they could spike their pensions with OT? That was inexcusable and really hurt the city. I'm a 20 year HR guy and letting OT count towards a pension was brutal.
Greg
Was it Fahey or Daub (I think Fahey) that negotiated deal with the fire union where they could spike their pensions with OT? That was inexcusable and really hurt the city. I'm a 20 year HR guy and letting OT count towards a pension was brutal.
Greg
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Re: The Stothert Administration
He was an engineer. He may have had the "knack" as Dilbert put it, but he was absolutely horrible at interacting with people. Especially people who were mad about something valid. Just could not help putting his foot in his mouth.Greg S wrote:Suttle could be pretty ignorant at times. With all of the budget issues we had going on (he inherited them), the bike czar was really poor timing on his part. Not debating if it was needed but was not the right time.
Was it Fahey or Daub (I think Fahey) that negotiated deal with the fire union where they could spike their pensions with OT? That was inexcusable and really hurt the city. I'm a 20 year HR guy and letting OT count towards a pension was brutal.
Greg
Re: The Stothert Administration
Stothert should have put him on her payroll, considering his case of foot-in-mouth disease did the campaigning for her.bigredmed wrote:He was an engineer. He may have had the "knack" as Dilbert put it, but he was absolutely horrible at interacting with people. Especially people who were mad about something valid. Just could not help putting his foot in his mouth.Greg S wrote:Suttle could be pretty ignorant at times. With all of the budget issues we had going on (he inherited them), the bike czar was really poor timing on his part. Not debating if it was needed but was not the right time.
Was it Fahey or Daub (I think Fahey) that negotiated deal with the fire union where they could spike their pensions with OT? That was inexcusable and really hurt the city. I'm a 20 year HR guy and letting OT count towards a pension was brutal.
Greg
When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you're doing his will.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
RNcyanide wrote:Stothert should have put him on her payroll, considering his case of foot-in-mouth disease did the campaigning for her.bigredmed wrote:He was an engineer. He may have had the "knack" as Dilbert put it, but he was absolutely horrible at interacting with people. Especially people who were mad about something valid. Just could not help putting his foot in his mouth.Greg S wrote:Suttle could be pretty ignorant at times. With all of the budget issues we had going on (he inherited them), the bike czar was really poor timing on his part. Not debating if it was needed but was not the right time.
Was it Fahey or Daub (I think Fahey) that negotiated deal with the fire union where they could spike their pensions with OT? That was inexcusable and really hurt the city. I'm a 20 year HR guy and letting OT count towards a pension was brutal.
Greg
She didn't need any help. I'm no political soothsayer but I would almost guarantee you if she wanted to run for Senator she could win. You got a woman who is well spoken and intelligent and comes off sincere and nice. Thats a pretty good act.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
The democrats should have let him lose the recall instead of using Sienna Francis for election fraud. They could have run someone better and then Stothert would be on the council instead of the big chair.RNcyanide wrote:Stothert should have put him on her payroll, considering his case of foot-in-mouth disease did the campaigning for her.bigredmed wrote:He was an engineer. He may have had the "knack" as Dilbert put it, but he was absolutely horrible at interacting with people. Especially people who were mad about something valid. Just could not help putting his foot in his mouth.Greg S wrote:Suttle could be pretty ignorant at times. With all of the budget issues we had going on (he inherited them), the bike czar was really poor timing on his part. Not debating if it was needed but was not the right time.
Was it Fahey or Daub (I think Fahey) that negotiated deal with the fire union where they could spike their pensions with OT? That was inexcusable and really hurt the city. I'm a 20 year HR guy and letting OT count towards a pension was brutal.
Greg
A good lesson for all pols. Sometimes the angry working stiffs are right. Blow them off at your peril.
Re: The Stothert Administration
Really good point grandpa. I think someone like her would make a really good governor.GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:RNcyanide wrote:Stothert should have put him on her payroll, considering his case of foot-in-mouth disease did the campaigning for her.bigredmed wrote:He was an engineer. He may have had the "knack" as Dilbert put it, but he was absolutely horrible at interacting with people. Especially people who were mad about something valid. Just could not help putting his foot in his mouth.Greg S wrote:Suttle could be pretty ignorant at times. With all of the budget issues we had going on (he inherited them), the bike czar was really poor timing on his part. Not debating if it was needed but was not the right time.
Was it Fahey or Daub (I think Fahey) that negotiated deal with the fire union where they could spike their pensions with OT? That was inexcusable and really hurt the city. I'm a 20 year HR guy and letting OT count towards a pension was brutal.
Greg
She didn't need any help. I'm no political soothsayer but I would almost guarantee you if she wanted to run for Senator she could win. You got a woman who is well spoken and intelligent and comes off sincere and nice. Thats a pretty good act.
Re: The Stothert Administration
She has already said she has no designs on higher office. As mentioned previously, this is actually really good for us because she won't run the city to the beat of the party's goosesteps in order to appeal to a far more conservative audience. She's basically free to do as she pleases without worrying about stashing skeletons in her closet.
When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you're doing his will.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
Actually I think that was just typical Becka/KFAB idiocy. If I recall correctly, almost all of that guy's salary was paid for by private grants with very little actual city funding.Greg S wrote:Suttle could be pretty ignorant at times. With all of the budget issues we had going on (he inherited them), the bike czar was really poor timing on his part. Not debating if it was needed but was not the right time.
I guess though, that speaks to one of Suttle's biggest weaknesses; being bad at PR. His camp should have pushed back against the KFAB led onslaught and shut them down.
That was Fahey. The sad part is that he did that as a way to throw a bone to the police and fire departments that had not received raises in at least a couple years up to that point. The unions wanted the raises, but Fahey wouldn't budge. Ironically enough, the raises would have been SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the pension spiking.Was it Fahey or Daub (I think Fahey) that negotiated deal with the fire union where they could spike their pensions with OT? That was inexcusable and really hurt the city. I'm a 20 year HR guy and letting OT count towards a pension was brutal.
Re: The Stothert Administration
What about the million that Suttle 'lost' to the police unions? Am I remembering something incorrectly there?
When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you're doing his will.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
bigredmed wrote:The democrats should have let him lose the recall instead of using Sienna Francis for election fraud.
Well first off, let's get some basic facts right.
- The Sienna-Francis fiasco was the result of Forward Omaha, not Suttle himself.
- What happened there was not illegal, per the Nebraska State Patrol.
- Pro-recall groups had done similar things, using homeless people to get the signatures required to start the recall. Also not illegal.
- If anything, the Sienna-Francis issue probably lost Suttle more votes than it gained for him.
I'm not sure who that would have been, though I think Jerram or (and to a lesser extent) Festerson would have made solid mayors.They could have run someone better and then Stothert would be on the council instead of the big chair.
If it was the "angry, working stiffs" that decided it, Suttle would have lost the recall and Stothert would be in just as big of a PR deficit as Suttle was. Suttle lost to Stothert because his second campaign sucked.A good lesson for all pols. Sometimes the angry working stiffs are right. Blow them off at your peril.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
That's pretty typical politics for unionized public-sector workers. It's why they've traditionally received below-average wages, but very generous pensions. It's an easy solution for short-term politicians, because you're rewarding them with money for future generations.Bosco55David wrote:That was Fahey. The sad part is that he did that as a way to throw a bone to the police and fire departments that had not received raises in at least a couple years up to that point. The unions wanted the raises, but Fahey wouldn't budge. Ironically enough, the raises would have been SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the pension spiking.
My home state of Illinois is finally paying the piper on this one. They've been giving generous pensions for decades (some with and without spiking, but that's not the real problem, it just exacerbates it). During this time they've consistently under-funded the pension fund or over-estimated returns. Now suddenly it's an emergency, but it's been years in the making.
If someone like me set a fixed amount of money I wanted to retire on, but then decided that I wanted to spend my 401k contributions on vacations every year, by retirement age, I'd be screwed too.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
Although the ConAgra move doesn't appear to be a case of it, there is far too much job-stealing between states and cities in the US, and all of us are losers from the instability and tax inequality of it.RNcyanide wrote:Even if she was caught off guard, what could she do? Hold a gun to their heads? Offer to tear down the Greenhouse and the dispatch center, or to wash his cars every week?
No one really could do anything to get this guy to keep it here. In Corporate America, job comes to you.
I grew up outside of a small town that had two shuttered manufacturing plants. They both were built on generous incentives, and when the tax-incentives ran out, they packed up and moved to the next little town that offered them a bunch of stuff for free. The plants were at the age of requiring retrofits and renovation, so the extra price to build new was more than covered by the incentive packages they could get elsewhere. It turns into a race for the bottom, and hurts established businesses that choose to stay the most, since they're in effect subsidizing the ones that move around.
I'm all for discussing reforming the corporate tax code, but doing without looking at all these special incentive deals is missing half the picture.
Re: The Stothert Administration
Stothert supporting extending the wheel tax to outside the city limits? Surprising move.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
And it is Franklin Thompson who brought it up again I believe. I guess it's not just "urban hipster elitist marxist left-wingers" that propose and/or support taxes such as this after all.iamjacobm wrote:Stothert supporting extending the wheel tax to outside the city limits? Surprising move.
Re: The Stothert Administration
Midwestern wrote:And it is Franklin Thompson who brought it up again I believe. I guess it's not just "urban hipster elitist marxist left-wingers" that propose and/or support taxes such as this after all.iamjacobm wrote:Stothert supporting extending the wheel tax to outside the city limits? Surprising move.
There is a whole other half to that. They would also get to vote in city elections... I believe that was the hiccup before, taxation without representation. This time you could vote on city issues too.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
Also, you have the soup of municipalities within three miles of the Douglas/Sarpy border to consider. There was concern years ago that Omaha's push to capture more wheel tax revenue from surrounding residents could start a wheel tax war. Ralston for instance is three miles from the border of Omaha, LaVista and Papillion. If Omaha, LaVista and Papillion tried to reach across the border for wheel tax revenue, unless some restriction was put in place, there's a potential for Ralston residents to pay three wheel taxes.
I personally don't buy the argument that surrounding residents are freeloaders. Most probably work and shop frequently within the Omaha city limits and pay sales taxes on a regular basis.
I personally don't buy the argument that surrounding residents are freeloaders. Most probably work and shop frequently within the Omaha city limits and pay sales taxes on a regular basis.
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Re: The Stothert Administration
A friend said he got blocked from the mayors Twitter. After posting this
I just asked why we're donating $10 million worth of property (and the revenue from the parking lot they're going to build) to the Holland so HDR, who has almost $2 billion in revenue, can build their HQ where they want. If they want the spot so bad, why aren't they buying the buildings themselves?
Guess she doesn't like criticism
I just asked why we're donating $10 million worth of property (and the revenue from the parking lot they're going to build) to the Holland so HDR, who has almost $2 billion in revenue, can build their HQ where they want. If they want the spot so bad, why aren't they buying the buildings themselves?
Guess she doesn't like criticism
Re: The Stothert Administration
It's somewhat easy to inadvertently block people on Twitter also.Uffda wrote:A friend said he got blocked from the mayors Twitter. After posting this
I just asked why we're donating $10 million worth of property (and the revenue from the parking lot they're going to build) to the Holland so HDR, who has almost $2 billion in revenue, can build their HQ where they want. If they want the spot so bad, why aren't they buying the buildings themselves?
Guess she doesn't like criticism
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Re: The Stothert Administration
I doubt it was done in advertently
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Re: The Stothert Administration
I would much rather see the city spend 10 million to help a huge company locate downtown then spend 2 nickels on that Crossroads fiasco.Uffda wrote:A friend said he got blocked from the mayors Twitter. After posting this
I just asked why we're donating $10 million worth of property (and the revenue from the parking lot they're going to build) to the Holland so HDR, who has almost $2 billion in revenue, can build their HQ where they want. If they want the spot so bad, why aren't they buying the buildings themselves?
Guess she doesn't like criticism
Re: The Stothert Administration
But you've said before that nobody should dare to go downtown because it is so dangerous. I guess you really don't give a Hog's, Dog's, or Rat's a$$ about their employees.GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:I would much rather see the city spend 10 million to help a huge company locate downtown then spend 2 nickels on that Crossroads fiasco.Uffda wrote:A friend said he got blocked from the mayors Twitter. After posting this
I just asked why we're donating $10 million worth of property (and the revenue from the parking lot they're going to build) to the Holland so HDR, who has almost $2 billion in revenue, can build their HQ where they want. If they want the spot so bad, why aren't they buying the buildings themselves?
Guess she doesn't like criticism
HDR should pay the City 10 million dollars for their lot, IMO. Another detail left out is: how much is HDR going to pay for the two city-owned parcels that are next to the the OPA property that make up the whole block of surface parking? Are those city-owned parcels just going to be handed over to HDR for free?
He said "They are some big, ugly red brick buildings"
...and then they were gone.
...and then they were gone.
Re: The Stothert Administration
Yeah, nothing inadvertent about that. I was blocked from her Facebook page after raising similar concerns. The mayor seems extremely petty to me, and to not want any dissent regarding this deal.Uffda wrote:A friend said he got blocked from the mayors Twitter. After posting this
I just asked why we're donating $10 million worth of property (and the revenue from the parking lot they're going to build) to the Holland so HDR, who has almost $2 billion in revenue, can build their HQ where they want. If they want the spot so bad, why aren't they buying the buildings themselves?
Guess she doesn't like criticism
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Re: The Stothert Administration
I apologize to begin with, but, I just had to...
"She came in like a Wrecking Ball"
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Re: The Stothert Administration
Make a shirt of it! Chris Jerram will eat it up!Coyote wrote:I apologize to begin with, but, I just had to...
"She came in like a Wrecking Ball"
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Re: The Stothert Administration
WOWT just ran a teaser for their 10:00 news: City ready to give away another Historic Building.
Anyone know which one?
Anyone know which one?
Re: The Stothert Administration
Oh god, this city sometimes... at this point, I'm just going to go ahead and assume it is the entire Old Market.Coyote wrote:WOWT just ran a teaser for their 10:00 news: City ready to give away another Historic Building.
Anyone know which one?
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Re: The Stothert Administration
Is it too much to ask for it to be the 4-story state office building??Coyote wrote:WOWT just ran a teaser for their 10:00 news: City ready to give away another Historic Building.
Anyone know which one?
Re: The Stothert Administration
Omg. That is funny stuffCoyote wrote:I apologize to begin with, but, I just had to...
"She came in like a Wrecking Ball"
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Re: The Stothert Administration
I never heard what building their teaser was about last night, did anyone catch it elsewhere?Midwestern wrote:Is it too much to ask for it to be the 4-story state office building??Coyote wrote:WOWT just ran a teaser for their 10:00 news: City ready to give away another Historic Building.
Anyone know which one?
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Re: The Stothert Administration
This year, the city is 0 for 2 on snow removal. The first one (Christmas Eve) kind of caught everyone off guard; nobody was predicting that amount of snow and it came fast.
This one, the forecasters had the storm pretty much nailed last night. An inch or snow of snow before rush hour, and more during the rest of the morning and afternoon. And morning rush hour was complete gridlock.
With one inch of snow. This isn't Atlanta. But the city apparently decided to run snow operations like Atlanta.
This one, the forecasters had the storm pretty much nailed last night. An inch or snow of snow before rush hour, and more during the rest of the morning and afternoon. And morning rush hour was complete gridlock.
With one inch of snow. This isn't Atlanta. But the city apparently decided to run snow operations like Atlanta.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
People started showing up at work this morning around 0630 saying it took over a hour to get to Aksarben Village, and some later took 1.5 - 2 hours of travel time.
Like you said, EVERYBODY know this storm was going to happen, maybe it came an hour earlier than expected, but there was a warning out last evening...
Like you said, EVERYBODY know this storm was going to happen, maybe it came an hour earlier than expected, but there was a warning out last evening...
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Re: The Stothert Administration
It took me 1 hr 15 min to get from near Offutt to Aksarben Village. I left 20 min early this morning thinking that would be enough, but no such luck.
Re: The Stothert Administration
I get the frustration, but really this snow fell at the absolute worst time to get them clear. If this started at midnight instead of 6 AM the streets would have been a lot better b/c the crews could have been out on empty streets clearing. Trying to clear snow in rush hour has to be a pain. I guess I don't know what Stothert has shown to have a different snow policy than previous Mayors.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
Can't say I could blame them for this Morning. When the snow starts falling as the traffic picks up it is not possible to be ahead of it and clear what is not there yet. The way it came retreating with anything would not have helped.
I chalk the AM drive up to drivers needing to plan ahead too and take some responsibility.
I chalk the AM drive up to drivers needing to plan ahead too and take some responsibility.
For the record NEBUGEATER does not equal BUGEATER !!!!!!!
Re: The Stothert Administration
And what would you blame this afternoon's commute on? The roads are STILL terrible and they have, in fact, shut down Dodge street from 84th to 90th. Fact of the matter is the city has once again dropped the ball. Don't go around blaming it on the driver's. People who have to be out there going to work, work with what they've got, and what they were given was an icy pile of slush to drive on.nebugeater wrote:Can't say I could blame them for this Morning. When the snow starts falling as the traffic picks up it is not possible to be ahead of it and clear what is not there yet. The way it came retreating with anything would not have helped.
I chalk the AM drive up to drivers needing to plan ahead too and take some responsibility.
Re: The Stothert Administration
Nice to be out of town and reading the weather reports and such. Hopefully it will be clear by the weekend. Glad I parked in the covered garage!
Re: The Stothert Administration
It looks like the OWH removed the sentence, but apparently Omaha's director of snow removal operations commutes by bicycle, even in the snow.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
I had to drive from Chalco to Bellevue then went straight to 144th and F. From my house to Twin Creek took me about 45 minutes each way and from my house to 144th and F took about 20 minutes. There were cars on the side of the road, people spinning out, taking up two lanes, and other weirdness. It's just something I've come to expect each winter. I have my snow tires and front wheel drive Honda and I feel like I'm a decent driver in the snow (just like everyone else, right?). With that, I can conquer this city.
When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you're doing his will.
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Re: The Stothert Administration
A rear wheel drive pickup with snow tires and chains would probably perform better on snow and ice than SUV's and Crossovers with four/all wheel drive and all season tires.RNcyanide wrote:I had to drive from Chalco to Bellevue then went straight to 144th and F. From my house to Twin Creek took me about 45 minutes each way and from my house to 144th and F took about 20 minutes. There were cars on the side of the road, people spinning out, taking up two lanes, and other weirdness. It's just something I've come to expect each winter. I have my snow tires and front wheel drive Honda and I feel like I'm a decent driver in the snow (just like everyone else, right?). With that, I can conquer this city.
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Re: The Stothert Administration
All-season tires aren't worth shit.
When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you're doing his will.
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